Taylor Lewan thinks Tampa Bay is playing with fire if it keeps dragging out Baker Mayfield’s long-term deal.
With Mayfield in the final year of his contract and Vita Vea having recently asked for a trade, Lewan said the Buccaneers need to settle things with their quarterback first and let the rest of the roster fall into place from there. In his view, that move would do more than just reward the team’s most important player - it would steady everything around him.
“You need the head of the snake in order to function at 100 percent,” Lewan said. “He’s going to be a leader and he’s going to be all ball, but everybody is going to know, if you pull him into a corner and ask ‘How do we feel?’
He’s going to be pissed off with the situation. But when it comes to the quarterback, it’s take care of your No. 1 guy first.
Then it’s on Baker to go toward the Kirk Cousins role of how do we structure this contract so it can trickle down for everybody else.”
Mayfield is set to play this season on $33.3 million after arriving in Tampa Bay as the former No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 draft. According to Adam Schefter, the Buccaneers have already put a two-year offer on the table worth more than $100 million in total.
Still, Mayfield has made it clear he’s not interested in a drawn-out back-and-forth. Last month, he said there would be no more contract talks until after the 2026 season.
“If you’ve waited this long to take care of your franchise quarterback, that’s too bad because it’s only going to get worse from here,” Mayfield said. “I’m going to have a really big year.”
The production has given Tampa Bay plenty to think about. In two seasons, Mayfield has helped the Buccaneers win two NFC South Division titles and a playoff game.
The market around him only sharpens the tension. Mayfield enters the season as the NFL’s 16th-highest paid quarterback, and he has pointed to deals for Trevor Lawrence of Jacksonville at $55 million per year, Jordan Love of Green Bay at $55 million, and Brock Purdy of San Francisco at $53 million.
Lewan’s larger point is that Tampa Bay needs to act before the situation gets messier. He said a quarterback deal could bring some calm to a team navigating more than one negotiation at once, especially with Vea’s trade request now in the mix.
“There’s a bit of yin and yang taking place,” Lewan said. “I always lean on the fact of ‘Let’s pay our boy.
Let’s get our boy paid.’ And let’s make sure we have the continuity of this team and this franchise so that we feel really good about it.”
The numbers around Mayfield make the case even louder. Of the NFL’s top 15 highest-paid quarterbacks, eight have never played in a Super Bowl, and Mayfield’s 12 career playoff passing touchdowns trail only Josh Allen of Buffalo, who has 29, and Dak Prescott of the Dallas, who has 14, among quarterbacks who have never been to the Super Bowl.
If Tampa Bay waits until after the season, the 2027 free-agent quarterback class could include Deshaun Watson of Cleveland, Aaron Rodgers of Pittsburgh, Jacoby Brissett of Arizona, Cousins of Las Vegas, Justin Field of Kansas City, and Mayfield.
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